Abnormal Children
REVIEWS AND CRITICISM.
Les Enfants anormauxr Guide pour I’admission des enfants anorrnaux dans les classes de perfectionnement. Alfred Binet et Th. Simon.
The object of the book is indicated in its sub-title,?a guide for the admission of abnormal children into special classes. It has been discovered that a large number of children in the elementary schools of France are unable to advance at the average rate of progress. The State has therefore provided special schools and classes for backward children. The problem of selecting these pupils then presents itself, and Messrs. Binet and Simon have undertaken the praiseworthy labor of furnishing data for the avoidance of grave mistakes in the establishment of these schools. That this question is of more than local importance, is evidenced by the attention it is attracting in the United States, and by its growing prominence there and elsewhere, in proportion to the improved efficiency of school systems.
As was to be expected in the joint work of Dr Simon and Professor Binet, the well-known director of the psychological laboratory of the Sorbonne, the discussion of “abnormal children” is taken up in an extended manner from psychological and medical standpoints. Obviously, such treatment of the topic will scarcely awaken so widespread an interest among teachers and school administrators as one of a more largely pedagogical and general nature. It is to be feared that the title itself, “abnormal children,” and the great space given to medical considerations may cause educators to dismiss the book as not within their province. Let us hope, however, that such will not be the case, for the book is a notable contribution to the very meagre literature of retardation in schools. A few extracts will indicate some of the points at which Messrs. Binet and Simon touch the investigation of retarded children, now being so actively carried on by The Psychological Clinic and individual educators.
The following passages are of special value in their bearing on the ultimate adoption of a standard measure of retardation: “According to an agreement arrived at in Belgium, which we would modify slightly, the amount of retardation necessary to put a child in the class of retarded children is two years when the child has not reached the age of nine years, and three years when the child has passed the age of nine years. This rule is very exact and easy to apply to all children with the corrections already mentioned relative to lack of regularity in attendance, which might often be an extenuating circumstance. Though this rule may be rather rigid, as we believe it is, it will, nevertheless, always be possible to make it more flexible by a close analysis of the individual cases to which the application of it may have been made.
“From these data, which we have explained more fully elsewhere with the support of exact proofs, we can see that not only a school director, but even a stranger may determine which are the least intelligent children, and the least adapted to the school, without taking the trouble to examine them all individually. All that is necessary is to know their place in school, and to make a comparison between their place in school and their age.”
With reference to the tests to be made for the purpose of determining retardation,?namely, (1) the examination of the pupil’s schoolstanding and (2) of his intelligence,?the authors make this trenchant and important statement:
“In short, we advocate the psychological examination as a means of rehabilitating the child who shows a decided backwardness in his studies. That is the only use it has. Never, in any case, can this examination be used to declare as retarded a child who does average work in his studies.” J. Warshaw.
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